TRENTON — State Senate Republicans flirted with independence from Gov. Chris Christie less than two weeks ago, but they’re not going hog wild.

An attempt to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a bill (S1921) that would ban farmers from keeping pregnant pigs in crates stalled today, after several Republicans reversed their previous votes.

Even though the bill had passed 29-4 in May, the vote reversals deprived Senate Democrats of the 27 ayes they needed for a successful override. Seeing just 25 yes votes on the board and knowing the attempt would fail, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), the bill’s sponsor, requested the bill be pulled and said he’d try again when the Senate meets next month.

"They’re going to have to live with their consciences," he said of the Republicans who reversed their votes.

Hog farming is not a big industry in New Jersey. And industry advocates say that they’re not sure if any pregnant pigs in New Jersey are crated. But it’s a huge industry in Iowa, which, with the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest, could be crucial to Christie’s potential 2016 presidential campaign.

Lesniak said in a July op-ed article in The Times of Trenton that Christie’s "political ambitions appear to be dictating his decision" to veto the bill. But Lesniak did not make that point today. "I don’t care about the governor and Iowa. I care about ending cruelty to pigs," he said.

Animal rights activists, led by the Humane Society, are pushing to ban crating pregnant pigs state by state. More than 100 activists dressed in pink shirts with pictures of pigs on them and the words "Vote yes again on S1921" flooded the Statehouse to lobby senators.

"I think it’s probably incomprehensible for anyone to imagine the anxiety and the pain and the stress that these animals undergo," said Elizabeth Kucinich, who was in Trenton to lobby for the override. Kucinich is married to former Democratic Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004 and 2008.

But Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, said the practice is not cruel to the animals. "Just because they say it’s inhumane doesn’t mean it is. There are a number of different housing types for sows. All of them have advantages and disadvantages," Warner said.

New Jersey farms were home to 8,000 pigs in 2011, according to the federal Department of Agriculture. By contrast, Iowa that same year had 20 million.

The Legislature has never succeeded in overriding any of Christie’s vetoes, even with bills that had originally passed overwhelmingly, because Republicans have always been willing to change their votes so as not to go against Christie. But there was some question whether today would be different.

On Nov. 7, 10 out of 16 Senate Republicans bucked Christie when he tried to oust state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) from the minority leader post in favor of state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex).

Today, only two GOP senators, Diane Allen (R-Burlington) and Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset) — stuck by their yes votes on the May passage of the pig-crate bill. Those who switched their yes votes to no were state Sens. Dawn Addiego (R-Burlington), Christopher Connors (R-Ocean), Jim Holzapfel (R-Ocean), Robert Singer (R-Ocean), Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) and Kean.

Kean acknowledged meeting with Christie before the vote this morning, but said it was a typical meeting and they did not talk about hogs. "The subject did not come up," he said.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he wasn’t surprised about the vote switching.

"It’s like ‘Groundhog Day,’ isn’t it?" he said. "We’ve seen this over and over again."